


Far From A Fairytale

by ive_been_losing_sleep



Series: Hinata Rare Pair Week [4]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: M/M, also shoutout to kags who never really makes an appearance but has his own backstory cuz im trash, apprentice!akaashi, can you tell that this is partially inspired by tangled?, honestly kenma's just so tired of kuroo's antics, prince!kuroo, prine!hinata, royal advisor!kenma, someone save him, someone should prob save akaashi too, wizard!bokuto
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-27
Updated: 2016-07-27
Packaged: 2018-07-24 11:54:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,786
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7507303
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ive_been_losing_sleep/pseuds/ive_been_losing_sleep
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>in which Hinata is a kidnapped prince, and Kuroo is a prince from a neighboring kingdom who believes way too much in the notion of love at first sight</p>
            </blockquote>





	Far From A Fairytale

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Cutiepiehinata](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cutiepiehinata/gifts).



> HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOHANNA ILY (also i'm sorry that your bday fic is also part hina week fic, i decided to kill two birds with one stone)
> 
> you'll see the tangled reference, i'm sure of it
> 
> (also, this is completely unedited. please point any errors that you may see, to save myself from future embarrassment!
> 
> //
> 
> Day Four  
> Prompt: Fairytale

“I’m in love.”

The statement is punctuated by the slam of heavy oak doors slamming against the stone walls of the castle as Kuroo slips into the room. From his seat in the back of the room, Kenma continues his work, etching numbers and figures into the parchment sprawled across the desk. 

Miffed at being ignored, Kuroo coughs. “I’m in _love_ ,” he repeats. 

“Who is it this time?” Kenma asks, tone bored and stagnant. 

Kuroo bounces across the floor, planting himself on the corner of Kenma’s desk, knocking over several containers of ink and piles of finished work. Grinning, as if unaware of the mess Kenma now has to clean up, he pulls a rolled up parchment from his vest, and holds it unnecessarily close to Kenma’s face. 

Kenma wrinkles his nose and pushes the paper from where it was brushing his nose. 

A smiling face is drawn immaculately in the center, the dark, swooping lines catching large eyes and unruly hair. The grin takes up the majority of the boy’s features, but what really captures Kenma’s attention is the word ‘MISSING’ written in glaring text above his head. 

Kenma sighs. “You’re in love with Hinata?” Kuroo nods eagerly. “From Tori?” Kuroo nods again. “The prince that’s been missing for over a year?”

When Kuroo nods for a third time, Kenma shoves the paper into his chest and looks back down at his work, now drowned in dark ink. “Stop wasting my time.”

“But Kenma,” Kuroo whines, hopping off the desk to drag Kenma’s chair out of reach from his work, “I just need to find out where he went, and then we can marry.”

Realizing that he wasn’t going to get any work done until Kuroo’s satisfied, Kenma says, “Even if you _do_ find him, what makes you think that he’ll be your partner?”

Kuroo points victoriously at the smaller print below Hinata’s smiling face. “Lookie, lookie.”

Squinting, Kenma reads: 

_‘Any kingdom that can successfully locate and return the prince Hinata Shouyou to the Kingdom of Tori will be offered the reward of the prince’s hand in marriage to any suitor of noble descent that the aforementioned kingdom chooses.’_

Smugly, Kuroo taps the iron crown sprawled across his hair. “I happen to be of noble descent.”

“I’m aware, Kuro. Except I don’t think they necessarily intended for a _prince_ to marry their son.”

Kuroo gawks. “What better do they want than the future ruler of a-”

“That’s not what I meant.”

It takes Kuroo a few seconds less than Kenma had anticipated to figure it out. “Tori is behind in the times,” he groans. “Marrying a _lady_ isn’t mentioned anywhere here, so I have my argument.”

Still skeptical, Kenma asks, “How do you plan to find him anyway? Tori has sent the best trackers and bloodhounds after him, and they haven’t found a thing in a year. But you think you could do it, because…?”

Kuroo leans backward, a dramatic swoon as he casts and hand over his eyes. “The power of love, Kenma.”

“The power of love,” Kenma repeats. Then, incredulously, “The power of love? Even if that was a solid strategy of its own - _which it’s not_ \- you haven’t even met the kid in person! You probably just found this poster during your hunting party today!” No denial pipes up. “You see his face slapped onto some parchment and suddenly you’re in _love_?”

As if he’s explaining something to a small child, Kuroo sighs, “It’s love at first sight, Kenma.” The paper with Prince Hinata’s face printed on it is once again shoved into Kenma’s eyes. “Look at that smile! How could a guy not fall in love.”

Kenma really doesn’t know what he expected. 

“That’s still no way to find a missing person.”

“You just have to believe, Kenma. _Believe_.” 

The deadpan look that Kuroo receives is so harsh that he physically takes a step back. “Fine then,” he huffs. “ _You’re_ the Royal Advisor. Advise me. 

“I’m not the Royal Advisor, yet,” Kenma argues. 

“Still. You keep making fun of my plan, so give me a better one.”

And Kenma should really know better than to rise to the bait but, “Panthum is the only Kingdom who holds a wizard in their castle. Why don’t you use it to your advantage?”

Kuroo grins, then quickly runs out the door, leaving an aggravated Kenma with an inky, cluttered mess to clean up. 

 

The Wizard’s chambers were hidden away in one of the tall spires of the castle, accessible only by a long, endless, spirally stairway that stops in front of a wooden door engraved with beautiful symbols and lettering. Bokuto likes to tell people that the engravings are enchanted, designed to set a curse upon any who enter his room with ill intent. 

Then, Akaashi likes to scoff and establish that Bokuto only had the runes inscribed there because he thinks that they make him look more like an official wizard, when in reality, they have absolutely no magical potential at all. 

The inside of the room was, at one point, a hot mess. For years, Bokuto was the only one who could navigate the books, potion bottles, and plant roots that littered the ground; meanwhile, no one else was able to move an inch without tripping over a cauldron or stepping on a wand. 

When Akaashi came though, his first order of business was organization. Everything had a place, and if it wasn’t there, then there would be hell to pay. Now, the books all line their shelves without any empty space, the extras piled in a neat tower to the side of the bookcase. The cauldrons are stacked in the corner of the room, next to the tables of jars that are alphabetically sorted based on their contents. One lone cauldron sits in the center of the room, stewing and steaming next to the podium holding a book open to a spell written in sloppy latin. Akaashi stands next to it, reading through the spell and pouring some chalky, purple powder into the mixture. 

Kuroo, who had been about to push the doors open with all of his might in an attempt to make a dramatic entrance, froze and knocked timidly on the wood. 

Akaashi was not someone you wanted to interrupt while he was working. 

Brushing any remnants of the dust onto his robes, Akaashi nods for Kuroo to enter. “What do you need?”

“I was looking for Bo.”

Akaashi just jerks his thumb up and over his shoulder, where a ladder leads to an overhang cut out of the tower walls with just enough room to hold their bed and a set of drawers for clothes. 

A hand hangs over the side of the loft, and Kuroo can barely make out a head of spiked hair pressed against the pillows. 

“What’d he do this time?”

“Accidentally turned me into a frog.”

“I’m a terrible wizard,” a voice cries from above. 

Kuroo raises an eyebrow at Akaashi expectantly, and he sighs. 

“You managed to turn me back, didn’t you?” he appeases. There’s no response, but the head does lift itself a bit, curious. “You’re not a terrible wizard, Bo.”

“I’m not?”

“Of course not.” Akaashi picks a jar from the table, and returns to the cauldron to throw in what looks like dried butterfly wings. “You’re a wonderful wizard. I wouldn’t have agreed to apprentice with you if I had thought otherwise.”

“Really?” the voice peeps hopefully. 

“Yes, really. And Kuroo must think so to, if he’s here to ask you a favor.”

Now the entire body pops up, eager and excited. “Kuroo’s here?” And Kuroo barely gets in a small wave before Bokuto is sliding down the ladder and crashing against the floor. “Kuroo!” he cheers. 

Kuroo grins. “Hey, man. I was hoping you’d be able to help me out with something.”

“What is it that you need?”

“I’m looking for someone,” Kuroo begins, already reaching into his vest to pull out the poster, “but I’m unaware of his location.”

Bouncing on his heels, Bokuto takes the paper from Kuroo’s fingers. “Isn’t this the poor kid that was stolen by a dragon last year?”

Akaashi pauses from where he was reorganizing the jars of beastly saliva. “The Prince of Tori? Why are you looking for him?”

“I’m gonna marry him,” Kuroo boasts, lifting his chin a little higher. Akaashi snorts, but Kuroo decidedly ignores him. “I just need to find him first.”

“I can definitely find him!” Bokuto laughs, already dragging a thick book from the shelves. He pushes the one from the podium onto the ground, and Akaashi sighs while he stoops to pick it up. 

As he returns the book to its alphabetically-designated spot, Akaashi coughs pointedly until Bokuto turns to stare at him. 

“Akaashi, are you sick?”

“ _No_ ,” Akaashi hisses. Then, he takes a visibly slow exhale through his nose. “Isn’t there something you need before you can cast the spell, Bokuto-san?”

The wizard blinks, then glances hurriedly at the book in front of him. “Oh!” he shouts. “Do you have something of the Prince’s that I can use to track him?”

Kuroo visibly deflates. “I’m supposed to have one of his possessions?” 

“Well, _duh_ ,” Bokuto answers obviously. “Otherwise this is going to be insanely difficult.”

Kuroo holds out his empty palms.

“Oh.” Bokuto frowns. “I guess we’re doing this the hard way.”

Kuroo’s about to apologize when: “What do I get in return?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, this spell isn’t exactly a piece of cake,” Bokuto says as Akaashi carries over an armful of jars and small boxes. “I need some kind of reward here, incentive to help you out.”

“It being a matter of my love-life isn’t enough of an incentive?”

Bokuto just stares at him. 

“You live in _my_ castle, Bo. For _free_.”

Bokuto nods, convinced. “I accept your terms and conditions.”

“I figured that you would.” Kuroo smirks. 

“Now go!” Bokuto commands, pointing at the doorway with so much vigor that the sleeve of his robe flaps over his fingers. “Let the wizard work in peace.”

Akaashi sighs. “I’ll send a page when we’re finished.”

 

The page doesn’t reach Kuroo until late that night, when he’s already dressing for bed. Hurriedly, he makes his way to Bokuto’s room. 

When he enters, Bokuto is covered with multiple scratch marks, and Akaashi’s face is streaked with ashy powder. At Kuroo’s curious look, Akaashi groans, “He told you it wouldn’t be easy.”

“But you found him?”

“Ta da!” Bokuto shouts, brandishing a small vial of purple liquid in his palm. 

Kuroo takes it from him, dangling it from his fingers as he inspects it. “Bokuto.”

“Yes?”

“I asked you to find the love of my life. I did _not_ ask you to make me grape juice.”

From behind them, Akaashi mutters something that sounds suspiciously like, “Why do I surround myself with idiots.”

“It’s not grape juice!” Bokuto shouts, pulling Kuroo attention away from angrily glaring at the apprentice. “It’s a map.”

“Then we have very different methods as to what a map is, Bo.”

Bokuto growls, “Just let me show you,” and swipes the vial from Kuroo’s grasp. Stomping to a desk, he pulls a piece of parchment from a neat stack and carefully lays it across the table, smoothing out any creases. “Just watch.”

He pops the cork and dribbles just a couple drops of the purple fluid from the small opening. It rains across the parchment, leaving small splatters that smell distinctly of cooked ham. 

Kuroo stares at the purple splotches, unimpressed. “Are they supposed to be doing something?”

Bokuto hushes him. “They need silence.”

Kuroo lifts a skeptical eyebrow, but waits. 

After a few seconds, the asymmetrical borders of the splatters become a little less asymmetrical, and Kuroo watches as each perfectly rounded drop moves across the parchment, joining together to form one round circle in the center. It sits there for a moment, as if deciding its next move, then bright fuchsia lines burst from its circumference and trace outlines across the parchment. The shapes connect with one another in several places, and split apart to take new paths in others. Curved edges straighten into lines, and corners bend into slopes. 

Eventually, Kuroo begins to recognize the blueprint being painted before him, and his recognition of it finalizes when the map flashes a startling magenta before fading into a deep purple once again. 

“Absent Grove,” he murmurs to himself quietly. “But what would he be doing there?” 

Bokuto throws up his hands. “Don’t ask me. You asked me to track the kid down, not give you his story.”

The sound of papers shuffling fills the room as Akaashi adds, “His story is something you’ll have to find yourself, Kuroo-san.”

 

He has a horse ready early the next morning. Dew still sits on the forest floor, and the sky is painted with brushstrokes of breathtaking pinks and oranges. When the horse stomps his hooves, he leaves imprints in the soft, cool earth.

Kenma waits next to him as he prepares himself, shoving dried foods into the saddlebags and lowering the stirrups. “You don’t want to bring an extra horse for Hinata?” he clarifies. 

“Nah.” Kuroo grins. “It’ll be romantic, riding back with his arms around my waist. I’m looking forward to it.”

“Right, of course.”

Slinging himself up and into the saddle, Kuroo pats the horse beneath its cropped mane. “Alright. I think we’re ready to go.”

“You have the map?”

Kuroo rests his hand over a rolled up piece of parchment shoved into his belt. “Got it right here.”

“Okay,” Kenma says slowly. “Well, I’ll just say that I hope this doesn’t turn out the way I think it will.”

“How do you think it’ll turn out?”

Kenma grimaces. “Badly.”

“You have so little faith.” Grinning, Kuroo urges his horse to take a few steps forward. “Love always prevails, Kenma, just you wait.”

“Right,” Kenma agrees dubiously.

Still, Kuroo’s grin never wavered. “You’ll see. I’ll be back by the end of a day with a future husband sitting right behind me.” His feet push into the horse’s side, and he breaks out into a gallop and slipping into the bordering tree line before the sun even fully rises. 

Kenma watches him go, muttering, “This is going to be a mess.”

 

The bright, fuchsia dot on the map blinks, leading Kuroo through the tall trees of the woods. The branches blot out most of the sunlight, but random spots manage to seep through the leaves and cast speckled patterns of light across the forest floor. The horse follows a path alongside a river, careful to avoid the thick tree roots and fallen logs that sometimes block his path. 

While the forest is beautiful, it is rarely trodden by the people of the kingdom. It is the home and territory of many people (most not human) who do not follow the laws of Panthum and are best left alone. Save for a sole hunting party when he was young, Kuroo himself has never set foot into the woods, and certainly has never gone as far as he will to reach Absent Grove, a small cluster of trees in the center of a meadow deep into the woods. 

But love compels people to do the most daring of things sometimes. 

Still, he keeps a keen eye out for any troublesome obstacles in his path. While he’s confident in his ability to face anything that opposes him, time is of the essence, and he really wants to meet the boy with the bright smile as soon as he can. 

So, he spurs his horse to move even faster. 

He reaches the meadow at around midday, and immediately slows the horse to a slow trot. Flowers dot the grass along the floor, some shooting upward and same staying low to the dirt. The trees in the center are short, but glistening with colorful, foreign fruits hanging from the branches.

But Kuroo’s far more interested in the small, simple cabin that sits right in front of the grove. 

It’s tiny, incredibly so, and built from rough logs stacked up onto one another. A window is cut out of the front wall, a wooden shutter hinged to the side of it and some kind of orange fabric hanging in front from the inside, keeping Kuroo’s wandering eyes from glancing into the room. A stone chimney juts out from the right side of the house, but no smoke puffs out. 

A couple animals wander around the surrounding area cabin. What looks like a dog lifts its head at Kuroo’s approach before slinking into the open door of the house. Along the rooftop, several squirrels and birds watch curiously from their perch, chattering and snickering at one another while a horse, dark black with a choppy mane, saunters around the field, grazing and flicking its tail irritably. 

As Kuroo approaches, he can make out the brand signifying the Kingdom of Tori along the horse’s rear.

He’s in the right place. 

Giddily, he slips off of his own horse, and quickly does a once-over of his appearance. He flattens the creases on his pants, brushes a stray leaf from his shoulder, and makes sure that his crown sits just right. 

Perfect. 

Now, it was time to meet his husband-to-be. 

 

The first thing he calls as he enters the cabin is, “Don’t worry any longer! I am here to rescue you!”

And he is met by complete silence. 

He clears his throat and tries again. “Be afraid no longer, fair prince! Your savior has arrived!”

On the other side of the cabin, the animal that Kuroo had seen slip into the cabin cocks its head at the intrusions, flicking its ears irritably. When Kuroo does nothing more than sit there, stewing in the silence that greets him, it begrudgingly rests its head on its paws and watches him coldly.

“Goddammit,” Kuroo mutters to himself. “So that didn’t go as planned.”

The room he stands in is close to barren, occupied by a sole wooden table accompanied by two matching chairs. A makeshift sink is set up in one corner, built from a basin and a pipe that juts through the wall, and on the other side of it is a row of cabinets sitting below a line of shelves covered in mismatched bowls, mugs, and platters. A pale orange curtain hangs from the ceiling on the other end of the room, and Kuroo can just barely make out what looks like a doorway behind it. 

Maybe that’s where his prince is hiding. 

Ignoring the heavy gaze that follows him as he approaches the door, courtesy of the dog still resting beneath the table, he shifts the covering to the side to peek inside. 

And, oh boy, he was so, so wrong when he thought that he fell in love as soon as he saw Hinata Shouyou’s face on that poster. 

Because what he feels now, as he finds the prince sleeping soundly in a rickety bed, is a thousand times stronger than his previous infatuation. 

His hair is a startling shade of orange, reminiscent of the color that surrounded the sun as it set on the horizon. He is small, his lean figure and short stature tempting to wrap around and hold close to his chest and never let go. He sleeps on his side, curling the blanket close to his chest and pressing his nose against the fabric held tightly in his hands. 

He is the most beautiful thing that Kuroo has ever seen. 

Slowly, he steps toward the bed. The Prince’s eyelids are relaxed shut, and his breathing is slow as he slumbers despite the bright sunlight streaming in through the window. Kuroo watches him for a few seconds, entranced, before realizing how creepy that must be and looks away. 

_How does someone manage to sleep so peacefully in the middle of the day?_ he asks himself. Then, _Oh, it’s one of_ those _kind of rescues_. 

After all, it isn’t too farfetched that the one who had stolen Hinata Shouyou from his kingdom would also cast the classic ‘Sleeping Curse’ on him. And everybody knew how to break one of those. 

Kuroo grins, eyes locked on the Prince’s lips. 

“This was a great plan.”

 

Kuroo doesn’t realize that the plan wasn’t so great until he awakens on the floor of an unfamiliar room with a pounding headache in his left temple. 

Groggily, he rubs at his forehead and begins to sit up. “What the he-”

“Don’t move!”

The shout is like a hammer driving itself into the side of Kuroo’s skull, and it takes a minute before his eyes can focus on the blurry shape that had made the noise.

The Prince stands in front of him, feet spread and knees bent. His brow is furrowed tightly, and his hands firmly grasp-

Kuroo’s pretty sure he’s hallucinating. 

“Is that… Is that a rolling pin?”

Hinata’s grip on the handle of the cooking utensil tightens to the point that his knuckles turn white. “I’m not afraid to hit you with it again,” he growls. 

Kuroo blinks. “Hit me with it… You hit me with a fucking rolling pin?!” 

Hinata nods. 

“Why would you do that?!” Kuroo asks, too flabbergasted to care that the sound of his own voice just pounds the hammer harder against his head. “I’m here to rescue you and bring you home! Not kidnap you again!”

“Rescue me?” Hinata scoffs. “Why the hell would I need rescuing, I’m not in any danger.”

“You were _kidnapped_ by a fucking _dragon_! Sounds pretty dangerous to me!”

At this, Hinata sniggers. “Kageyama is far from dangerous.”

Kuroo’s jaw drops. “You gave the dragon a name.” _Great, he’s fallen in love with a crazy person._

“What? No, of course not.” Before Kuroo can breathe a sigh of relief - his future husband is actually sane - Hinata adds, “That’s his actual name. He had it a long time before he met obviously.”

“Oh, my God,” Kuroo mutters to himself. 

“Yep, sorry for the misunderstanding. Please leave now. Goodbye.” Hinata steps forward to prod Kuroo in the side with his foot. “Tell my parents I don’t miss them for me, will ya’.”

Kuroo shoves the (very small, and admittedly adorable) foot away from him. “You really want to stay here? In the middle of the woods? Where a huge-ass dragon dragged you off to?”

“It’s much better than Tori, believe me. Now out you go.” This time, when Hinata digs his toes into Kuroo’s side, Kuroo grabs him by the ankle and yanks him down to the floor with a satisfying yelp of surprise. 

“Wait, I’m not leaving until I figure out what the Hell’s going on. Why don’t you want to go back to Tori?”

Hinata rubs at his elbow, grimacing. “You’re really stubborn, ya know that?”

“I’ve been told that once or twice.”

Still glaring, Hinata stands up. Surprisingly, he offers a hand to Kuroo and hoists him off the floor. “Might as well make some tea then.”

 

It’s hard to admit, but the shoddy, wooden chairs at the table are not nearly as uncomfortable as Kuroo would’ve liked to think. The seats are topped with cushions that probably aren’t much more than stray bird feathers wrapped in a thin sheet, but they’re soft so Kuroo can’t complain. 

The tea that Hinata makes is pretty good too, even if it took a few minutes for him to start a fire and boil the water. 

Kuroo can start to understand that this place may not be as bad as he had originally thought, but he still doesn’t see how it it can compare to the luxuries Tori has to offer. 

Hinata drops into the seat across from him, sipping at his tea and bouncing his leg anxiously. The rolling pin rests on the table beside him menacingly. 

“So,” Kuroo starts when the silence becomes too drawn out for comfort, “what’s the deal here.”

“Well, first of all, Tori’s fucking awful.”

Kuroo waits, but no explanation is given. “Care to elaborate?”

“They’re all a bunch of rich snobs,” Hinata sniffs. The dog animal, which had jumped onto the table as if it was a cat, hops the short distance into Hinata’s lap and swishes its tail across Hinata’s arm comfortingly. Hinata pats it on the head and continues, “They’re oppressive, stuck too deep in the mud of their own traditions and social norms that I never had any room to breathe. They’re extremely bigoted, discriminatory against the foreigners that would arrive in the ports to trade their goods, and are extremely old-fashioned. I was never even allowed to leave my room, since its an old tradition that the prince is never seen by anybody outside of the castle walls before he’s crowned king.” Hinata drops his head onto the table. “Everyday, tutors would come to train me on knowledge that doesn’t even matter. ‘Here is a list of countries we hate for no other reason than that one time their king didn’t show up to our yearly dinner party. Always use the smaller forks for salads and the larger ones for the main course. When you marry a woman, you must rule her with a firm hand or else you are not a strong, macho male.’” Hinata groans loudly. “It made me sick.”

“That does sound pretty awful,” Kuroo admits. 

Lifting his head, Hinata stares at Kuroo with sad, brown eyes. “Can you really blame me that I never want to go back.”

Kuroo really can’t.

“So the dragon stealing you away was just some stroke of luck?”

“Not quite,” Hinata says. “He didn’t just randomly show up in my bedroom one night to whisk me off to a better life. Kageyama was hunted by my father’s men - dragon scales are a rare and extremely pricey form of currency in Tori. He was shot down from the sky and dragged down to our castle’s dungeon so they can monetize him.” Suddenly, Hinata looks like he’s on the verge of tears, and Kuroo wants nothing more than to put a hand on his shoulder, to run his fingers under his watery eyes, to do something. 

But the rolling pin still glares at him from its position next to Hinata, and Kuroo really doesn’t want to tempt fate. 

So he just promises to himself that, after today, he will never let anything make this beautiful soul cry again. 

“Removing a dragon’s scales is like removing a person’s fingernails.” Kuroo winces, and Hinata nods in agreement. “It’s _torture_. So when I heard my guards gossiping about it from outside my bedroom, I couldn’t just sit there. I snuck out through my window and managed to find myself in the dungeon. I promised that I would let Kageyama go, and he insisted that he take me with him.” Hinata smiles sadly. “I sure as hell wasn’t going to turn that down. So I unlocked his cell, he grabbed me, and then we were gone.” He wipes the tears from beneath his eyes, and turns his heavy stare onto Kuroo. “And I have no plans on ever returning.”

“That’s fair,” Kuroo agrees, because it really is. Panthum has never had much contact with Tori due to being separated by Fev, and he’s suddenly really glad that he’s never had to deal with the other Kingdom. 

“I honestly didn’t think that they would search for me,” Hinata admits nonchalantly, bringing his mug of tea to his lips. 

“If it were me, I’d never stop searching for you,” falls from Kuroo’s lips and Hinata chokes on his tea. Hastily, before his rapidly heating face could entirely burst into flames, Kuroo yanks the scroll with Hinata’s face on it from his belt. “I mean, uh, yeah they’re looking for you!” He laughs awkwardly. “See?”

Still coughing, Hinata takes the flyer from his hands. “‘The reward of the prince’s hand in marriage,’” he reads out loud, nose wrinkling in disgust. He balls up the poster, throwing it across the room with enough anger that the animal in his lap startles and leaps away, ducking into the bedroom as it runs away. “I can’t believe this. I’m not some prize that they can give away to some lucky winner. What kind of asshole would actually think that saving me is the equivalent of me agreeing to marry them?”

Kuroo laughs awkwardly (again). “Right, what absolute assholes. You’re obviously you’re own person, why would they ever think th-”

“I know that that’s what you were here for,” Hinata interrupts.

Deflating, Kuroo apologizes. “I’m sorry. It was wrong of me, I know. But you were just so cute in that picture, and I honestly thought it was love at first sight. I’m a grade-A asshole, I can admit to that, please don’t hate me,” he begs. 

“Love at first sight?” Hinata snickers. “You really are stupid. That isn’t an actual thing.”

Kuroo frowns and says, deadly serious, “No, it’s a real thing.” Hinata’s face flames, and Kuroo’s sure that his is beginning to match. 

“Oh, would you look at that!” Kuroo shouts suddenly, standing up so quickly that he knocks his empty tea glass over. “It’s getting kind of dark, I think it’s time for me to go and…” He pauses. “Wait a second. Why is it dark out? I’ve only been here for a few hours…” He whirls on Hinata who jolts back from righting Kuroo’s tipped mug. “How long was I unconscious for?!” 

Tone apologetic, Hinata says, “Well, I hit you pretty hard. You were out for at least a few hours.”

Kuroo gawks. Then, his fingers start to run along his scalp, knocking his crown onto the floor and searching for any kind of bump or bruise. As he prods the left side of his head, he suddenly pulls back when a piercing pain runs through his head. “Ouch,” he hisses. 

“Oh, shit. Is there a bump?” Hinata asks, already up and out of his seat. He pulls Kuroo’s head down so that he can look over it, and he gently rubs at the aching spot on Kuroo’s temple. “Shit, dude, I’m sorry, but I guess this is what you get for trying to kiss a guy when he’s sleeping.”

Kuroo wants to respond, he really does, but Hinata’s face is so achingly close to his. It’s _right there_ , and Kuroo can’t bring his eyes away from the beauty in front of him. They’re strapped there, and it’s like staring into the sun; painfully bright, but too glorious to look away from. 

At his silence, Hinata moves his gaze from the bump and locks eyes with Kuroo. Before he can stop himself, Kuroo reaches up to take Hinata’s hands from his head and holds them within his own. It’s too much of a moment for him to pass up the opportunity.

Hoping that every drop of his sincerity is soaked into his words, he promises, “I won’t tell anybody about this place. You’ll stay safe here, I swear it.”

For a while, Hinata doesn’t say anything and he doesn’t move either. His eyes search Kuroo’s face, as if looking for any shred of insincerity. Finally, he grins. “Let me show you something.” With his hands still locked inside of Kuroo’s, he leads them both outside. 

 

“Fireflies?” Kuroo questions as Hinata pushes him down into the grass. Lightning bugs dot the field around them, varying in shades ranging from purple to yellow, flitting around lazily under the stars. 

“Nope,” Hinata sings as he reaches his palm outward. Almost immediately, several colored lights land upon his palm and he pulls his hand back. “Look.”

Squinting, Kuroo leans in for a closer look. Nearer to them, he can make out long bodies attached to the large, butterfly-shaped wings. Round eyes blink at him from beneath long, curling antennae, and the thing quickly danced away from him, pirouetting on thin legs. 

“Faeries,” Kuroo murmurs incredulously, and Hinata giggles next to him. Gently lifting his hand into the air again, the faeries fly off, buzzing around his head for a few seconds before joining the cluster of their friends. 

“This is amazing,” Kuroo whispers, because it is. It’s amazing that faeries exist in the first place, when he’d been told that they were nothing more than a myth from long ago. It’s amazing that he’s here now, watching them swirl and flicker through the color wheel. 

And it’s amazing that a Prince made of sunshine sits beside him. 

“You said that you won’t tell anybody,” Hinata says, startling Kuroo from his thoughts. “That’s not necessary, though. Tell people if you want. Share this with them. But, please,” he whispers, “only tell the people that matter. The people that you can trust with your very soul.”

Kuroo nods, opening his mouth to agree to the promise, but Hinata isn’t done. “These woods are home to so many wonderful friends that I’ve made. Kageyama, still missing patches of his scales, lives further down the stream. The faun Yamaguchi, hunted for his antlers, lives inside the grove with his giant tree-nymph friend. Daichi and Sugawara ran from their own Kingdom to start a new life just a little deeper into the woods. If you send people to find me, you’re sending people to find them too, and I won’t allow that to happen. Can you promise me that that won’t happen.”

“You have my word as the Prince of Panthum,” Kuroo swears, bowing his head as low as he could without his crown falling off.

Hinata shakes his head. “The promises of royalty mean little to me.”

Kuroo lifts his head to look Hinata in the eyes. “Then how about I swear by a heart which has been taken by true love. Because that is all I have left to offer you.”

Hinata smiles, and squeezes Kuroo hand from where it still clutches his. 

“I accept then.” He leans forward, and presses his lips softly against Kuroo’s temple, soothing the pain that still rests there. “And I hope that you won’t stay away too long. I still have a whole other world to show you.”

“So long as you promise not to hit me with a rolling pin again.”

“Only so long as I can sleep without having to worry about you kissing me,” Hinata counters. 

“Would a kiss really be such a bad thing.” Kuroo pouts. 

Suddenly, Hinata’s dangerously close, pushing his lips so close to Kuroo’s that they brush over one another as he speaks. “I would much rather be awake to appreciate it.”

Kuroo’s eyes are shut tight, but he swears that he can see the faeries flash a bright, romantic shade of pink as they kiss. 

**Author's Note:**

> yay!!! so that's day four of hina week completed. I skipped day three in my schedule to write this, so at the time I'm writing this author's note, I have no idea whether or not I did day 3. It's a surprise even for me guys!
> 
> Hinata Shouyou has been trained in rolling-pin-karate, he knows how to handle that thing. It's a lot easier to swing around than, say, a frying pan or something of the sort *winks*
> 
> so let's see if I manage to write another fic for tomorrow too!! if I don't you guys have permission to beat me up, cool?


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